Fiscal Ship

Objective

Students will understand how federal policy making decisions, and their associated revenue and spending implications, impact the budget, and will experiment with developing policy plans to meet a variety of priorities while prioritizing fiscal sustainability.

Standards

Concepts

Summary

The Fiscal Ship challenges you to put the federal budget on a sustainable course. Measured as a share of gross domestic product, the federal debt is higher than at any time since the end of World War II and projected to climb to unprecedented levels. America is looking at a permanent, growing mismatch between revenues and spending, and policymakers are faced with difficult decisions about how to reconcile important government priorities—including retirement and health benefits promised to the growing number of old folks—with the tax revenues that the current tax code will yield. Today’s tax code won’t yield enough revenue to pay for basic services of government plus the retirement and health benefits promised to the growing number of old folks. So your mission is to pick from a menu of tax and spending options to reduce the debt from projected levels over the next 25 years. Small changes to spending and taxes won’t suffice. The choices are difficult, but the goal is achievable.

But budget decisions aren’t only about fiscal sustainability. They also shape the kind of country we live in. To win the game, you need to find a combination of policies that match your values and priorities AND set the budget on a sustainable course.

The Fiscal Ship is produced by the Hutchins Center at Brookings and the Serious Games Initiative at the Woodrow Wilson Center. We solicited advice from an advisory committee that represents a broad spectrum of political views. We are grateful to our funders, the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and the Lounsbery Foundation. Brookings and the Wilson Center are solely responsible for the game; neither the advisory group nor the funders had approval or veto power over its content.